~ – Where the magic starts –

Monthly Archives: November 2014

” We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars, now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt”

What is it about?

Earth can no longer provide food to humans. A little expedition is going into space, trying to find livable worlds so humankind can keep existing. We follow an astronaut and some scientists on their journey. We see what they have to face when our fate is in their hands.

Why should you (yes please) watch it?

Forget about Gravity. Forget about Star Trek. Forget about Star Wars. This is Interstellar. A Christopher Nolan movie. Do I need to say more?? This movie is simply one of the best science-fiction movies ever seen and it will be included in the best sci-fi ranks.

Why is this movie so good? First, we have the actors, all Oscar nominated or winners. We have Matthew, Anne, Jessica, Michael…. all of them do a marvellous work!! They get into their character and don’t let it go until the credits. You can feel the weight of the world on their shoulders. You can feel when they don’t want to do something but they have too.

Secondly, the plot. The plot might be nothing extraordinary: oh well, we have to leave Earth because we have not enough food pfff But!! what makes it interesting is how the story is explained. How science is included in the movie and how you feel attracted by it. How you feel like watching 2001: A Space Odyssey all over again (i wanted even to re-watch Farscape imagine!! XD) Yes, it can be a bit overwhelming all this physics class, but nonetheless, it is something fascinating, how something like physics can be adapted (yes not 100% exact) into a movie and how this can make the audience enjoy a good time (and even learn a thing or too!).

Thirdly, the visual effects. If you loved Gravity, you will love this one even more. The filmmakers definitely spent a great amount of time doing their work in here. You feel like you are in space, flying, drifting…

Fourthly, the music!! Hans Zimmer does an amazing job!!! You feel tense when you have to feel tense. You feel emotional when you have to feel emotional. He does an awesome job in making us feel what they are feeling or even feeling more!!

Remember, if you are expecting to watch an action movie, then you better go watch something else, because this is not that kind of movie. This is a movie about humanity, about what makes us humans, about what we are willingly to sacrifice in order to allow our species to survive.

An almost three hours show too short for my likeness. So, when is the DVD/BR coming out?? :3

Did you know?

– The logos for Warner Bros, Paramount, Syncopy and Legendary at the beginning of the film all have a “dusty” treatment given to them, foreshadowing the reason for film’s main plot.

– To creating the wormhole and black hole, Dr. Kip Thorne collaborated with VFX supervisor Paul J. Franklin and his team at Double Negative. Thorne provided pages of deeply sourced theoretical equations to the team, who then created new CGI software programs based on these equations to create accurate computer simulations of these phenomena. Some individual frames took up to 100 hours to render, and ultimately the whole CGI program reached to 800 terabytes of data. The resulting VFX provided Thorne with new insight into the effects of gravitational lensing and accretion disks surrounding black holes, and led to him writing two scientific papers: one for the astrophysics community and one for the computer graphics community.

– Composer Hans Zimmer was instructed by Christopher Nolan to make a unique score: “It’s time to reinvent. The endless string [ostinatos] need to go by the wayside, the big drums are probably in the bin.” Nolan did not provide Zimmer a script or any plot details for writing music for the film and instead gave the composer “one page of text” that “had more to do with [Zimmer’s] story than the plot of the movie”.

– Like Inception (2010) and the last two “Dark Knight” films, Nolan has focused on as many real environments as possible. “We have spatial interiors…we built closed sets [and] shot it like a documentary like [the actors] were really there,” he said. Nolan had the film’s visual effects created in advance and projected onto screens placed outside of the spacecraft set, so when the actors looked out the windows of their space vessel they would be able to see and react to a real environment and not a green screen. Technically, Nolan said he shot with an IMAX camera on Interstellar (2014) more than any of his previous pictures. He also wants to give greater enhancement to the audio experience this time around. He also stated that he has “very ambitious sound mix plans. [I want to] give audiences an incredible immersive experience. The technical aspects are going to be more important than any film I’ve made before.”

– Christopher Nolan cast Matthew McConaughey after seeing his performance in Mud (2012). It was an “ideal moment” for Nolan when they landed a Texas native, McConaughey, for the lead role. “I’m thrilled for him right now. I didn’t know how much potential he had until I saw Mud (2012), not just as a leading man but in sheer acting talent.” He remarked that in McConaughey, he “needed an everyday man who can experience these extraordinary events.”

– Features the most footage ever shot using 15/70mm IMAX cameras for a feature film, and, due to the film industry’s rapid conversion to digital projection formats, will potentially be the last feature film ever to be projected on 15/70mm IMAX film.

– The method of space travel in this film was based on physicist Kip Thorne’s works, which were also the basis for the method of space travel in Carl Sagan’s novel “Contact”, and the resulting film adaptation, Contact (1997). Matthew McConaughey stars in both films.

– The wormhole explanation using paper and pen is exactly the same as it appears in Event Horizon (1997)

– Given the movie is 169 minutes long and cost approx. $165 million to make, it therefore carries a price tag of approx. $976,000 per minute.

– A copy of Stephen King’s novel “The Stand” is visible among Murph’s books. King’s book is about the near extinction of humanity and the survivors struggle to relocate and settle down. Similar to the plot of Interstellar.

– Anne Hathaway suffered from hypothermia while filming in Iceland due to the fact that her astronaut suit was open while filming scenes in the icy water.

– Some space sequences were shot with an IMAX camera installed in the nose cone of a Learjet.

– The robot personalities are inspired by Douglas Adams’ universe (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), where the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation created the Genuine People Personalities (“GPP”), which imbue their robots with intelligence and emotion. The most recognized example in Douglas’ universe is Marvin, a depressed android.

– The oft-quoted lines beginning with “Do not go gentle into that good night” are from a poem by Dylan Thomas.

– The Wormhole is placed near Saturn as a reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), because Stanley Kubrick originally planed to end his movie in Saturn, but because technology wasn’t able to make Saturn’s rings at that time, he changed it to Jupiter.

– The character of Murph was originally a boy in early drafts of the script.

– The Ranger, Endurance, and Lander spacecrafts were created using miniature effects by effects company New Deal Studios, as Christopher Nolan felt they were better than computer-generated effects to give the ships a tangible presence in space.

– The name of the black hole is “Gargantua” who was also a giant with an incredible appetite, very difficult to satisfy. This character was created by François Rabelais in his “Gargantua e Pantagruel” novels.

– The TARS robot, when standing upright, strongly resembled a much smaller version of the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

– Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars makes a friend and ally named Tars Tarkas from whom TARS could be named.

Like this:

We have Nessa Stein, a british-jewish who inherits her family arms business and tries to promote the reconciliation between Israel and Palestine but she will find herself in a battle that she can no longer avoid…

Why should you (definitely) watch it?

First of all, in this series you can feel that is not americanized, quite the contrary, I had the feeling that was really real, not like these action movies where the good guys (mainly white west men) win. Not at all!!! Myabe it has something to do that is produced by the BBC…. 😉

The main topic, that is the conflict between Palestine and Israel is something that is happening while you are reading this. It is a matter that has such a potential for fiction work, a matter to which they take profit in this series.There is the conflict and there are the players from both sides, both sides have they reasons to get into action, they have allies in the other side or in a side that you don’t expect to…

This series is simply a magnificent work, where you cannot feel which side is the good one (everyone can get to their own conclusions thought). You’ll get hooked from the first minute and you will asking for more and more, because on each episode something new unveils, but not in the classical cliff hang way but in a more stylish one.

Secondly, we have Maggie Gyllenhaal an american actress playing a british-jewish. When I heard her it was like, because I know she is american otherwise she would have fooled me!! She does an amazing performance and it won’t be guessing much saying that some awards nominations are coming her way…

You will like this series if you like Homeland, but believe me, this one is much better and it’s a pity that is hasn’t been so much advertised, because it’s definitely worth your time. So now, please ditch Homeland and go and what this miniseries!! Only 8 episodes!! (yes, only…..)

Did you know?

– Filmed over a period of three months.

– Maggie Gyllenhaal has cited Emma Thompson as being a huge influence on how she came to her British accent.

– Hugo Blick claimed to want someone with authority, intellect but also “otherness” to play the role of Maggie. He claimed that he knew Maggie Gyllenhaal was perfect for this “…the moment she stepped onto the floor”.

– In order to persuade Maggie Gyllenhaal to the role, Hugo Blick claimed to only have to “fly to her New York home, show her the script and try some of her homemade nettle soup.”

– BBC Controller Ben Stephenson had felt that his previous commission of a series from Hugo Blick, The Shadow Line (2011), was a great success and was very keen to repeat the opportunity of working with Blick again.